Hedge fund were up 1.18% in October, according to the Bank of America Merrill Lynch investable hedge fund composite index.

Equity long/short and event-driven funds were the best performers last month, adding 1.91% and 1.47%, respectively. Convertible arbitrage strategies, which performed worst, were still in positive territory, adding 0.16%.

Macros decreased their long exposure to the S&P 500 and NASDAQ indexes. In addition, they maintained their U.S. dollar and 10-year Treasury shorts while adding slightly to their commodity shorts. Macro funds maintained their small cap tilts.

Data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission shows large equities speculators reduced their net S&P 500 and NASDAQ longs while neutralizing their Russell 2000 longs to a net short.

Large agriculture specs sharply increased their soybean longs and and their corn and wheat shorts while metals specs sold gold, bought silver, reduced platinum longs, maintained palladium longs and added to copper shorts.

From the current issue of

Since the inception of Modern Trader, a core editorial theme has centered on the wisdom and power of crowds. Editorial emphasis has focused on companies and projects engaged in the collection and analysis of information.